DAO Manifesto

External Reference Links

Current IOTA Manifestos

Click to view each proposal and discord link below

Open-source Decentralized Finance (DeFi) DAO

DeFi is evolving quickly in the broader crypto ecosystem. When smart contracts come to mainnet, we want to ensure the IOTA ecosystem offers the most competitive DeFi opportunities. Instead of waiting for outsiders to come into the IOTA environment with a primary motive to extract liquidity, we hope to create an organization to learn, synthesize, and build innovative DeFi solutions – all developed by and for the IOTA community.

We envision:
A community learning + working + governance organization to experiment and build DeFi solutions on IOTA Smartcontracts. Fully open-source, DAO-governed, and visible public github. Collaboration with other existing IOTA DeFi builders. Fair initial allocations of protocol tokens based on investment, not insider allocations.

Our initial goal is to build a protocol-owned-liquidity solution based on the Olympus ($OHM) protocol to run on the SC testnet.

When a working defi protocol is built by the community, public auditing and decisions for implementation decided by the DAO.

DM me if you want to be involved!

Current members include:
@TangleAccountant
@gman214
@ZAIRED #1
@True
@bennnni
@sexypotato
and many others from whom I have not yet received permission to add to this list.

by @Camus – https://discord.com/channels/397872799483428865/907908485411385374/908158256587882537

Society2 DAO Manifesto

The longstanding idea for Society2 that we are currently building with our Flow framework is: have nodes dedicated to topics that anyone can start, and then revenue from a number of sources, the most obvious being advertising.

Moderation would be economically incentivized to be high quality because more people means more revenue. And more people will want to join and remain contributing in spaces that are engaging, on topic, and welcoming (so not too much nonsense, but also not too heavy handed moderation: quality moderation is hard work… that should be rewarded).

In the beginning, this can be one guy or gal, the pioneer in the space.

But if such a Society2 node grows to a huge userbase, this creates a huge moderation load (that, hopefully, is offset by a huge influx of advertising and ancillary revenues).

And how to run that?

A DAO.

A moderation team organized by a DAO, and enjoying a piece of the income stream from the node, distributed according to the rules of the DAO. And content decisions, moderation decisions: voted on via a DAO.

Also: revenue should flow from the DAO to high quality content contributors- they create the content that brings consumers of the Society2 node to the table, they deserve a cut. Perhaps a simple function of level of engagement/ a voting mechanism/ a tip jar or paywall mechanism/ etc.

Simple commenters as well who create quality discussions should get a cut from the DAO, again as a function of level of engagement under content, according to vote or views or engagement, measured via a mechanism that can be determined as most fair.

And finally: even those passive lurkers and readers who opt-in to advertising (opt out is the default in Society2), they should get a cut of the ad revenue as well via the DAO.

by @Ben Royce – https://discord.com/channels/397872799483428865/907908485411385374/908165569147174922 & https://discord.com/channels/397872799483428865/907908485411385374/908185653693526106

DePa (Decentralized Party) Manifesto
Liquid Democracy: True Democracy for the 21st Century


Without going in-depth into politics as we know it from our own experience in our respective countries, I will share with you some statements as food for thought, and a call for action!
“As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world in 2020, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny…”
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2021/democracy-under-siege

“Poor institutional performance meant that people had to make their voices heard through popular street protests… Globally, these protests have a number of similarities. They are an indicator of dissatisfaction with government performance… highlighted by the growing gap between the political elite and the general population, alongside a lack of political and societal accountability.”
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/qu%C3%A9-pasa-con-la-democracia-en/

“Liquid Democracy is the democracy model fit for today’s society. The technology is ready, the only thing missing is more effort into working on concrete implementations that research this area in more detail. Most importantly, we need to determine which models are applicable for the actual governance (directive or administrative) of a country.”
~ Dominick Schiener (Nov 2015) https://medium.com/organizer-sandbox/liquid-democracy-true-democracy-for-the-21st-century-7c66f5e53b6f

Here we have today an opportunity to manifest Liquid Democracy. Dom even mentions ‘Pirate Parties’ as a prime example of what we should aim for: an IOTA based technical infrastructure ‘template’ that could be used by a Decentralized Party (DePa), in which immigrants can virtually join their connationals to exercise voice and vote beyond physical borders. i.e. Millions of dispersed refugees who are currently unrepresented.

by @TonyO2 – https://discord.com/channels/397872799483428865/907908485411385374/908421952597819402

Experimental Iota Web of Trust DAO

They say it can’t be done so lets do it and prove them wrong! This DAO will seek to become the natural voting base for an Iota Treasury Disbursement DAO – the place that will allocate Treasury funds to projects. We don’t need permission – just a will to BUIDL it.

The principles for forming the Experimental Iota Web of Trust will be those set out in this Reddit article from earlier this month, as modified by experience as the experiment gets underway:

If you think the system can be gamed then you are invited to try. If you wish to add a Discord handle or a Twitter handle or even your full name to the Experimental Iota Web of Trust then contact me (dumdave) here in Discord.

Please help bring democracy to the Treasury DAO idea – if you do not want the votes to be dominated by the ‘big bags’ of Miota holders (lovely though most of them are) then please DM me.

NB I will keep a list in the short term, and report on progress. Get your provisional ‘IOTA HUMANITY ID’ now. Your provisional ID no. will dictate your permanent ID no. once your humanity is confirmed – so get in early for a high prestige early one – I reserve “IOTA Human 777” for myself. REWARDS. To incentivise the more cynical among you I will give 4 awards of 25 Mi each (or in case of price increases – capped at USD 50 equivalent each) for the first 4 humans to beat whatever system I devise for this experimental DAO. You have to get 2 or more ‘permanent ID nos and maintain them for at least a month without me challenging you with evidence. My decision on payment final in case of dispute. Also … if you have a true belief that we need a working ‘human ID’ system for voting (and I know many of you do) then please join me and help develop the sorting rules. (edited)

by @dumdave – https://discord.com/channels/397872799483428865/907908485411385374/908647333678436413

[DAO Food for thought] (Future) Voting, WoT, Proof of Humanity credit to dumdave#5233, DAO Pioneer, IOTA Discord from Iota

THE BUILDERS DAO: An Investment Community for Commercial IOTA Projects

Builders DAO

The Builders DAO is a dedicated DAO created to support commercial development within the IOTA Eco-System. An initial coin offering of the Builders ($BLD) token will be undertaken with a minimum buy in to the DAO of 500Mi (there is no maximum buy in). The initial token sale will aim to generate a funding system built around a community governed investment treasury that can be used to support chosen investment into commercial projects developing in the IOTA space that will offer long term revenue returns to the community over time.

10% of the initial investment will be held back for a DAO Development Fund to be used for application and DAO development, and immediate DAO running expenses. With the remaining 90% transferred to a DAO Community Investment treasury, available for projects to apply for finance that can help their developments approach commercial readiness.

DAO Community

Each DAO Investor will undergo a Human Identification process using a customised version of the VIRA application to issue a unique Verifiable Credential of human identity that will also be attached to a specific wallet address for the user that can be used for all staking, rewards, and voting purposes.

The purpose of this DAO is to purely invest in and support projects that provide substantial financial investment potential within the IOTA Eco-System. Projects can be publicly submitted using an updated version of the UP-project application and are subsequently “upvoted” to a level where they are eligible for community investment voting.

The voting system is managed through a DID and VC based voting system, allowing one user, one vote. The weight of a person’s vote will grow in time dependent upon their contribution within the community, with badges being issued for various reputation and contribution rewards that offer increased weight in public investment votes.

Returns on investments will be handled through Smart Contracts and a token staking system that can distribute revenue returns from projects over time to members dependent upon the amount of $BLD token they stake.

Builders DAO Committee

Within the first voting operations of the DAO a steering Committee will be appointed by the Community to act as a driving force behind the DAO operations and management. This will consist of 9 members volunteered or suggested from within community. This operation would be a first vote that can support a community decided committee that can oversee internal DAO building, management, and decision making, outside of the project investment and voting structure of community suggested project proposals.

Each DAO committee member would have the power of one vote within committee voting operations, with a minimum 5/9 majority vote required to win any particular internal initiative vote.

DAO Committee members are rewarded for their important contributions in two ways firstly through a reputation badge that offers increased weight in public community votes, as well as a DAO Committee Fund that would reward Committee members from future returns on investment from DAO financed projects.

Investment returns

A simple return on investment system will be put in place to support returns between the community investors.

All secured contracted returns from investment into community projects will be split in the following way:

  • 15% to the DAO development fund.
  • 5% to the DAO Committee.
  • 80% as staking rewards to DAO Community Members – split by token stake

Invested Projects

There is more than simply financial investment opportunity for projects who wish to apply for funding from the Builders DAO. Not only will funded projects gain the support and marketing power of an entire community, who would want every invested project to succeed in order to maximise ROI, but also the community experience and support will be available to further mentor, guide, and advise projects into reaching milestones and commercial readiness over a short space of time.

From this perspective, the DAO also operates as a kickstarter or launchpad for projects looking to enter market and can help guide and support the initial traction in a start-up’s early stages, to maximise the probability of success. This can include, but not be limited to, the creation of business plans, guidance and mentorship, ICO creation, technical support, Smart Contract/DAO creation, and more.

by @adamski[cyberverse] https://discord.com/channels/397872799483428865/907908485411385374/911553781873918002

Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO proposal

last change to this doc – 4th Dec 2021

authors: @dumdave @Linus(smooth brain = no sad) @Rafael Brochado (iota Discord)

Overview of the Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO Proposal

This DAO is a combination of a delivery method for grants to individuals who are building the Iota ecosystem with a voting and allocation method that is based on a democratic ‘1 vote per person’. The two things go well together, individuals known in the Iota Ecosystem vote, individuals building new elements to the Iota Ecosystem receive grants.

This proposal is submitted as part of the Idea-a-Thon concept on the Iota Discord. That offers funding of Euro 20,000 to up to 3 DAOs in addition to 2 pre-determined ones. This proposal is an application for Euro 20,000 of that funding.

This project also has the longer term objective of being in place and ready to accept far larger funding should the Treasury DAO vote be positive. If funded by the Idea-a-Thon it will ensure that it has in place robust systems to be able to distribute funds measured in millions.

Distribution Principles for the Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO

The aim of the Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO is to funds community individuals, not groups of individuals or projects. This has a number of advantages. Individuals with multiple interests within the Iota Ecosystem do not have to choose between them. Also, accountability is far greater as the contribution the individual makes can be more clearly seen – allowing grants to be extended or terminated more easily.

In a post Treasury vote world, the Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO would distribute sufficient funds to be able to provide stable grants to individuals sufficient to allow them to spend more time developing the IOTA ecosystem than theyy would otherwise have available.

A typical applicant might be a developer who works on Iota in their spare time and who has already contributed to the Ecosystem in a tangible way. An Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO grant might allow them to devote one or two days per week to it for a period of three months, allowing far faster progress and dedication to their projects.

In the shorter term, and looking at the fairly restricted funding of the Idea-a-Thon project, the Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO will, each month, issue ‘motivation grants’ of Euro 250 each, renewable up to 3 times. This will allow the processes involved to be tested ready for the availability of more significant sums later.

Voting Principles for the Iota Indie Web of Trust DAO

Who can vote? Any voter with a DID Verifiable Credential stating that they are a ‘contributing member of the Iota Ecosystem’ can vote.

DID Verifiable Credentials are issued by the Web-of-Trust team. Since 4th Dec 2021, the Web-of-Trust team has the following DID. Follow the link to see the DID Document on the Tangle.

did:iota:H9TkfyaSZzQo6tkjvPntgyunLSDi7JLnaUtJBJrP7RDn

DID Document for the Iota Web-of-Trust team

The process for issueing Verifiable Credentials is more fully outlined below. The important thing is that each person who has such a credential can join the DAO and participate fully in the voting system. They can also use the Private Key associated with their DID to vote, and the outcome of all votes can be seen in terms of a DID listing for each voting option.

Obtaining an Iota DID

An individual gets a DID Verifiable Credential from the Iota Web-of-Trust team by first getting their own DID using a self-service system. This is as simple as going to the following page, running the Replit there and recording the results as explained on the page.

Place to get an Iota Web-of-Trust DID

Important. Record your DID (the long string beginning did:iota) AND your keypair. It isn’t as vital as your Iota seed as you can always issue yourself another DID if you lose it. Don’t share the Keypair though – or someone else may be able to impersonate you.

Obtaining a Verifiable Credential

The Verifiable Credential needed to participate in the voting is that issued by the Web-of-Trust team (DID above) saying that the individuals DID is a ‘contributing member of the Iota Ecosystem’. The process for proving that is as follows:

[1]. Contact the Web-of-Trust team on Discord and explain your contribution. For most people this is a very short conversation if they fall into the following categories.

[a]. They work for IF and a Moderator confirms that if they are not well known.

[b]. They have a Discord handle that has an established history of contribution (outside of spec!). Easily checked using Discord search. No need to be a top mover and shaker though, we are just trying to eliminate people who don’t have a real interest in helping with Iota project.

[c]. They do not frequent Discord but are well known for their Iota related project work.

The Web-of-Trust team will develop ‘sorting rules’ over the first few weeks of existence and then put those for comment and decision on a regular basis to those who are already accredited.

Note. The initial process is expected to be straightforward as the community is currently tightly integrated, but the extension to the wider ecosystem as it grows is challenging. A concept of ‘reputation colonies’ is being developed to meet that challenge.

[2]. The Web-of-Trust team will use the DID you supply them with to issue a Verifiable Credential. That does not appear on the Tangle. It is given to you as something that can be produced to prove the right of your DID to vote. It will also contain your IHID (Iota Human ID) number which is a shorthand way (though non secure) of providing your ID within the Web-of-Trust ecosystem. NB The intention is that the core Web-of-Trust team themselves will be subject to regular AUDIT and ELECTION to avoid it becoming centralised – which is not the long term intention.

Example Verifiable Credential. The following is a Verifiable Credential issued by the Web-of-Trust team. It was issued 4th Dec 2021 to @dumdave [no. 777] who has this DID:

DUMDAVE DID: did:iota:EoQWjMLvtTN3QMjaDiCTZBBq7kscSJztoebYFBhLH9Se

Remember that this was the DID of the Issuer, the Web-of-Trust team

ISSUER DID: did:iota:H9TkfyaSZzQo6tkjvPntgyunLSDi7JLnaUtJBJrP7RDn

{
  '@context': 'https://www.w3.org/2018/credentials/v1',
  id: 'did:iota:H9TkfyaSZzQo6tkjvPntgyunLSDi7JLnaUtJBJrP7RDn',
  type: [
    'VerifiableCredential',
    'Contributing member of the Iota Ecosystem'
  ],
  credentialSubject: {
    id: 'did:iota:EoQWjMLvtTN3QMjaDiCTZBBq7kscSJztoebYFBhLH9Se',
    IHCT: 'cm',
    IHID: '777',
    alias: 'dumdave#5233 Discord',
    contribution: 'TangleDust.com',
    name: 'none given'
  },
  issuer: 'did:iota:H9TkfyaSZzQo6tkjvPntgyunLSDi7JLnaUtJBJrP7RDn',
  issuanceDate: '2021-12-04T15:19:36Z',
  proof: {
    type: 'JcsEd25519Signature2020',
    verificationMethod: '#newKey',
    signatureValue: 'hFHq2u2pqwyBwpvizHVpTyFsgvRwycDy8r1mWfczfjbhxzb8t76BAj4LE5jhLK8UejR4SyqNcULna399yanaFGJ'
  }
}

Verifying a Verifiable Credential

Obviously anybody could say that they have a Verifiable Credential, so there has to be an easy way to prove that it is genuine. The page linked to below gives anybody a way to check any Verifiable credential that they have in JSON form.

Place to check an Iota Verifiable Credential DID

Notice that the VC states that the person is a ‘Contributing member of the Iota Ecosystem’. That means that their DID can be used to vote in DAO elections.

Incentives for Participating in the Iota Web-of-Trust

Airdrop potential. Lots of our fellow ecosystem members plan to do an airdrop and want them to be distributed fairly. To show what the Iota Web-of-Trust is capable of, Farmer DAO (@ebk1960) have agreed the following, (subject to events,of course).

FarmerDAO. FarmerDAO have agreed to consider issuing their first token issue to certified members of the Iota community via the Web-of-Trust as that meets their requirements for a democratic launch.

Now get this, one time free drop of FarmerDAO tokens with a follow-on capped discount during the official pre-launch. No ID, no participation.

NB. Legal Sinking Fund. Around 8% of all airdrops and other Web-of-Trust benefits, from whatever source, will be reserved to the DAO for a ‘legal and compensation sinking fund’ to deal with disputes – that is, people denied certification and taking legal action. This fund will be held securely by a third party (to be agreed) and subject to full audit. Any ‘surplus’ to reasonable requirements would be redistributed to Web-of-Trust members.

Trade Management DAO

Introduction

Trade Management DAO presents a unique opportunity to foster IOTA engagement globally.  This is achieved by modernizing an environment with myriad participants coupled with ever varying requirements that struggles mightily to not be rendered an anachronism.  Today results can be chaotic, with delays and numerous challenges increasing expenses that can be very difficult to anticipate.  To such an environment, where dramatic process improvements are available through introduction of digital ledger technology this DAO is introduced to deliver IOTA software solutions. 

Joined together with Finance DAOs (yet to be developed), the Community presents a self-sustaining ecosystem, inasmuch as investors are presented an opportunity to finance trade transactions managed via the Trade Management DAO.  Funds provided are utilized to enable trading partner engagements and in exchange a return is provided back to the investors.  Thereby a complete economic cycle is realized and returning resources may be made available to finance yet more activities.

 Scope

Today’s international trade environment presents a composite of proprietary centralized programs.  Private sector transportation, software and  other service providers compete for participation advocating proprietary networks. Sovereign governments establish systems to facilitate customs declarations focused upon tax, tariff and other regulatory regimes.  Navigating these many networks through such a siloed approach is a cost long borne by the industry that is no longer justified against technological advances enabling decentralized networks and powerful economies of scale.

IOTA technology offers unique opportunities by way of a fee-less, energy efficient operational model. While there are many associations recently formed to support trade finance, customs & logistics transactions, these tend to be standards-based, support programs, that do not offer actual open-source software programs in which to engage an international trade transaction.  IOTA is uniquely positioned to deliver broadly scalable and efficient DLT programs. 

Mission

Trade Management DAO creates IOTA applications through open source software to facilitate trade transactions.

Objective

A DAO is necessary to facilitate release of the full potential of DLT for trade finance, customs, logistics and other transactions.   International coordination is necessary to establish a communication framework and infrastructure, agree on standards,

Measures

This DAO will succeed by:

  • Creating IOTA based software programs to support fundamental trade transactions that may integrate or exchange information with legacy and other cloud based systems.
  • Foster participation through buyers and sellers, service provides including customs and freight forwarders & brokers, international carriers, terminals, sureties and others. 
  • Develop transactions to support financial, shipping, intermodal, customs, terminal, warehouse, and other functions deemed appropriate by the DAO membership.
  • Liaising with DeFi Builders DAO to facilitate trade financing for the trade community, with consideration for a return back to the Trade Management DAO for building network until such time as the effort may be considered complete.
  • Establish additional revenue programs through membership dues, subscriptions, and fees for support programs offered.

Community

The type of community forming the DAO will be akin to a trade ‘association’.  Such an entity exists for tax purposes in US by way of a 501c(6), a tax free entity.  The values of the association embody a passion for the technology and the benefits it may yield to all, with an inclusive environment that embraces both trading partners themselves as well as service providers.  Service providers may utilize the system as a component to existing software programs, and integrate these into their for-profit enterprise. 

Software made available will be open source, available at no-charge to the user, with licensing such that the user engages at their own risk.

Governance

The DAO structure will be decentralized as much as possible, however as the organization may grow it may require staff to administer various programs.

To gather consensus in the decision making process, initiatives may be categorized by type of decision to be made.   In case of broad based situations with application to all or most membership, and lower complexity, vote may be cast by each member.  Where narrow applications or matters of high complexity delegation to alternative members may be made at the members option.

Membership

In recruiting members, Trade Management DAO will engage current members in US trade community, drawing members from both service providers and import/export firms involved and in dialogue with customs on existing trade programs having modernization opportunities.  International membership welcome, with recruitment focused on those familiar with intricacies of Trade processes, subject matter expertise, and IT development capabilities.

Other organizational matters to be determined. 

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